This invention relates to a container or carton, and more particularly to a carton for packaging and enclosing a number of rolls of material.
In the past, it has been known to package web or film rolls using a conventional rectangular box or carton. The rolls are placed within the box such that each roll is located in one corner of the box. Partitions, such as panels of corrugated board, are used to keep the rolls out of contact with each other. The boxes of rolls are stacked in layers on a pallet, and the palletized boxes are then wrapped with a stretch wrap material for binding the boxes and pallet into an integral shipping unit.
While the above-described shipping arrangement is generally satisfactory, there remains one potentially serious drawback in that the outer corners of the palletized boxes are unsupported. That is, the outer corners of the palletized unit consists of box corners defining an internal air space. When the palletized boxes are wrapped using stretch film, the forces exerted on the box corners by the film are often sufficient to collapse the box corners inwardly toward the roll adjacent the box corner. This provides an unsightly palletized unit which is objectionable to customers. Further, it is possible that the crushing forces exerted on the box corners may be significant enough to damage the web material on the corner roll during shipping and handling of the palletized unit. In any event, the crushing of the box corners can lead a customer to believe that the material contained within the box has been damaged.
It is an object of the present invention to overcome the above-noted drawbacks in the prior art by providing a carton construction which eliminates the air spaces at the outer corners of the palletized unit. It is a further object of the invention to provide a carton construction for shipping rolls of web material which provides support at certain of the carton corners for the rolls of web material adjacent thereto. Yet another object of the invention is to provide such a carton which is relatively simple to construct and to load with rolls of web material.
In accordance with one aspect of the invention, a carton is made up of first, second, third and fourth side walls which are interconnected such that the first and third side walls are substantially parallel to each other and the second and fourth side walls are substantially parallel to each other. A pair of angled corner walls are located such that one corner wall extends between and interconnects the first and second side walls and the other corner wall extends between and interconnects the third and fourth side walls. With this arrangement, the angled corner walls are on substantially opposite corners of the carton. The carton further includes end wall structure which encloses opposite ends of the carton defined by the side walls and the corner walls. The rolls of material are placed within the carton such that two of the rolls are engaged by the angled corner walls. The carton is constructed from a blank which defines a pair of spaced ends. Opposite ends of the blank are interconnected together such that the blank ends cooperate to define one of the angled corner walls. The end wall structure includes a series of top end flaps foldably interconnected with top ends defined by the first, second, third and fourth side walls, and a series of bottom end flaps foldably interconnected with bottom ends defined by the first, second, third and fourth side walls. Opposite ones of the top and bottom end flaps include an angled notch which defines an angled side edge, and the angled side edges are located adjacent the angled corner walls. Opposite ones of the top end flaps include retainer structure, in the form of a pair of foldable flaps, which is engageable within an internal passage defined by the core of each roll of web material. The retainer flaps have a width greater than the inside diameter of the core such that when the flaps are folded downwardly and toward each other, the flap ends engage the internal surface of the core and the flaps are deformed so as to securely engage the core with the upper end flap. This prevents any shifting of the rolls during shipment, thus eliminating the need for partitions between the rolls and preventing the rolls from rubbing against each other.
The invention further contemplates the combination of a carton with a series of rolls of web material, and a method of packaging rolls of web material, substantially in accordance with the foregoing summary.
Various other features, objects and advantages of the invention will be made apparent from the following description taken together with the drawings.